The Top 10 Worst Lyrics of 2013
Introduction RC: Ladies and gentlemen. It's about that time. I present to you the top 10 WORST lyrics I've ever heard this year. Let's get started. 10: "Versace" by Migos Migos: Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace RC: These idiots say the word "versace" 50 times… before the first verse starts. Jeez, you know, I remember in the mid 2000's when people got up in arms about McDonald's offering to pay a rapper for every time they mentioned Big Macs in a song, but no one's even batting an eye at this crap! :Migos: Come in my room, my sheet Versace :When I go to sleep, I dream Versace RC: Guys, PRETEND like you have some artistic integrity. I guess what really annoys me is the message this type of song sends: You see, when people normally drop product placement that's paid for, they do it subtly, to sneak in their product as somehow inherently a part of a culture. Which is sneaky, and sure, behind the scenes, they're calculating all these ways to market to us, but in the forefront, especially when it comes to music, songs like "Pass the Courvoisier" mentioned the product more in passing than anything. I mean, sure, it's the in the title, but in the context of the song, it was only in about half of the actual chorus and never really gets mentioned in the verses. You could excuse it if you wanted to, or you could really pay attention to it. But with something like this getting popular, it lets advertising agents know that hey don't need to be subtle! They can just HAMMER THE NAME INTO YOUR HEAD UNTIL YOU BUY IT! (Note: The president of Versace didn't know this song existed until after its release, so Migos weren't paid a cent for product placement.) :Migos: Versace my clothes, while I'm sellin them bows :Versace took over, it took out my soul RC: Pardon? Migos: Versace took over, it took out my soul RC: Oh… wow… sold your soul to Versace for a hit song, huh? Huh, I hope the eternal flames of hell was well worth peaking at... #99 on Billboard's Top 100. However, though, the idea of them getting paid for name dropping Versace went right out the window when I heard their next single. Migos: Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana RC: At this point, this is just their lazy way of writing choruses, because I highly doubt Disney's trying to market a show that's been off the air for 5 years to an "urban" community. And yes, I know that they're talking about cocaine and that cocaine is code named as "white girl" sometimes, and yes, Miley Cyrus is white, but see that's the thing: it's not called Miley Cyrus, no, it's called "Hannah Montana", after the children's TV show. Like, make no mistake, they SPECIFICALLY wanted to draw more Google searches based solely on the fact that this is a rap song named after a kids' TV show character as a reference to something that's adult-themed. And that just comes across as attention whorish to me. That's like making a song that goes "The Wiggles The Wiggles The Wiggles The Wiggles! When this song comes on, it makes her ass do the wiggles!" You know, I WAS gonna listen to some of their other songs to see if this was how they did EVERY one of their choruses, but uh… I need to put some other people on this list... 9: "La Familia" by Jay-Z Jay-Z: My brother is my brother like my brother is… RC: So, your brother, who is your brother, is like your brother. Well, it's not wrong… it's just stupid. Okay, what he really means is that a friend of his who is really close to him is considered as close to him as his actual blood related brother. But, uh… Jay -Z: "My Brother is my brother like my brother is…" RC: I can't help but feel like there's a less convoluted way to say that… Jay -Z: "my niggas is my brothers, like my mother's kids" RC: And… that was it. Why didn't you just say that the first time?! Jay-Z… are you running out of lyrics? Like, is this needless repetition of the same sentiment just your way of stalling for time to hide the fact that, maybe, after 20 years of rhyming, you've just run of things to say? 8: "Pound Cake" by Drake feat. Jay-Z Jay -Z: "Cake, cake-cake, cake-cake, cake 500 million, I got a pound cake Niggas is fronting, that's upside-down cake" *Looks uncomfortably* Jay - Z: Look at my neck, I got a carrot cake Now here's the icing on the cake Cake, cake-cake, cake-cake, uhh RC: So… I'll take that as a "yes"? Jay -Z: "I'm just getting started," RC: Maybe it's about time you do the exact opposite of that… And dude, I hate to insult you, because I know rappers are very sensitive, so I'm gonna try to help you figure out how I feel about this verse. Imagine if you will, Jay-Z, you're walking down the street, and some homeless guy comes up to you like, "Dude, I got a verse so awesome, guys like Drake are asking for a collaboration", and you say, "No way, lemme hear it!" And they say, "cake… cake cake cake…. 500 million, that's a pound cake,…. yeah you frontin', that's upside down cake, look at my neck, that's a carrot cake… but here's the icing on the cake…. cake… cake cake…" Now, call me crazy, but something tells me you wouldn't be breaking your neck to whip out the checkbook. 7: "No New Friends" by Drake Ft. DJ Khaled :Drake: Stay down with my day one niggas, and we in the club screaming :No new friends, no new friends, no new friends, no no new (DJ Khaled) :Still here with my day one niggas RC: So, I like how he proclaims "I only hang out with people who were my friends before I got famous", quickly followed by the name of a person he did not meet until after he got famous! Seriously, what counts as "day one" to you? what, the days before you got famous as a rapper? Well, maybe I've got bad eyes, but those guys don't look like the cast of Degrassi to me Or maybe he means that he's only down with the people he met AFTER he released his first album in 2010… …Here's a tumblr link to all of the new friends that Drake made AFTER 2010. Http://drakesnewfriends.tumblr.com/ RC: Dude, if you're gonna brag about not being friends with new people, maybe you shouldn't take so many pictures where that's… obviously happening… 6: "Bound 2" by Kanye West RC: You know, it took me 12 listens to figure out this song is supposed to be about being in love. Yeah, despite the fact that the chorus sings "bound to falling in love", I couldn't really tell. I have to say, there were a few things that kinda threw me off. Like, the first line where he compares his loyalty to his lover with the wonderful imagery of holding her head under water until the bubbles stop… Kanye: "When a real nigga holds you down, you 'posed to drown" RC: And his intimately passionate vocals that sound like he's trying to get through a call on a cell phone that has bad reception Kanye: And hey, ayo, we made it to Thanksgiving So hey, maybe we can make it to Christmas RC: And how he… seems to think Thanksgiving rhymes with Christmas, but no, the line that throws me off the most is this one: Kanye: Step back, can't get spunk on the mink I mean damn, what would Jeromey Romey Romey Rome think? RC: Forget about the spunk on the mink line, which is just… romantic, no I'm referring to him referencing a character from Martin Lawrence's TV show from the Nineties. It's just so corny. Like, in a way that you can't avoid. The music stops and you have no choice but to listen to his drawn out reference to his favorite TV show character. I mean, Kanye makes references to corny things all the time, but when you start the song with... Kanye: "All them other niggas lame and you know it now!" RC: ...and then hit us with... Kanye: What would Jeromey Romey Romey Rome think? RC: It rouses my suspicion that you might not be as cool as you think you are. And here's the thing: this same reference, for NO decipherable reason, comes BACK at the tail end of the song! :Kanye: Jerome's in the house, watch your mouth :Jerome's in the house, watch your mouth RC: Yep, Jerome's in the house, so shut your mouth… *looks upward* bound to falling in love… I mean, I can't be the only one who thinks these things don't sound thematically related, right? I mean, If you ask me, I think the problem is probably that he just has a bunch of yes men around him and no one to tell him when something's a bad idea, but you know what? What do I know? The man's given us some great music, he's a musical genius, so I'm sure he's fine. Let's ask the man himself. Kanye, are you alright? Kanye: I'M JESUS! RC: See? He's fine! 5: "Shit" by Future RC: Ladies and gentlemen, without insult or exaggeration, I would like to tell you that this next song by Future… is "Shit". :Future: Talkin', bout you.. poppin' tags, nigga, you ain't bought, shit :Talkin' 'bout a 100 bottles, nigga, you ain't pop shit RC: Oh, and if you ever complained about Future using too much auto tune, after this song, you'll know why Future: "Catch a nigga slipping at the red light With ya AK, let me see you shoot it" "So I went and added more diamonds! RC: I think he's trying to sound threatening by shouting, but honestly, it sounds like someone slammed his hand on a hot stove and told him he couldn't remove it until he finished this song Future: Gone put a nigga on a picture Gone put a nigga on a t-shirt Back in the day when a nigga sell dope RC: However, the line that caught my eye the most was this one: Future: Bought the ho a hunned pair of red bottoms Thats a quarter milly on a hand job my nigga RC: Why are you bragging about wasting a quarter of a million dollars for an hand job? I mean, I get that part of being a mainstream rapper includes saying "I have so much money, I could spend it on this unimportant thing and still be rich", but, do you guys realize how lame you sound when you talk about spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for sex. Since when did paying for sex become a thing to be proud of? Because whenever I hear lines like this, all I hear is him saying, "Yes. Despite the fact that I'm a rich, famous rapper, I'm still such a lame that I have to spend 250 thousand dollars just to convince a girl to put her hand on my penis". 4: "Villuminati" by J. Cole J. Cole: My verbal AK slay Faggots And I don't mean no disrespect whenever I say faggot, okay faggot Don't be so sensitive If you want to get fucked in the ass That's between you and whoever else's dick it is Pause, maybe that line was too far Just a little joke to show how homophobic you are RC: Yeah, I'm emulating Eminem, cause I'm killin' these faggots! But, like, I don't mean I'm actually killing them, because I'm cool with you faggots, I mean, hey, stop being offensive about the word faggot, you faggot! Aw, crap, that came out wrong. Wait, please don't boycott my album, I really love being with gay men. I mean, I don't love being WITH gay men, but, I love… wait, no, all along, it was YOU who's the one who's actually homophobic, because-- Wait, don't turn off the song, I'm going to explai-- 3: "Good Time" by Paris Hilton feat. Lil Wayne RC: Paris Hilton feat. Lil Wayne. Paris Hilton is on Lil Wayne's record label. That's a thing. As terrible as you know it's gonna be, what's really a treasure is hearing the lead in to Lil Wayne's verse. :Paris: And I might be a bit tipsy :But that's okay cause you're with me *l o n g a s s p a u s e... *I look on, amused* Lil Wayne: I'm fucked up RC: Ya don't say… Seriously, what happened there? Did, he really just come down off of something, or is this song so boring, he legitimately fell asleep during the lead in to his verse? Wayne: I can't tell you what's what All she know is suck fuck RC: So, basically, what he's saying is, "I'm not sure what's happening, but there's a mic in my face, so I guess I should talk about sex now Wayne: I walked up to a big butt And asked her ass, "Butt what?" RC: …oh, I think you need to hear that one more time Wayne: I walked up to a big butt And asked her ass, "Butt what?" Rc *points up* *clip from Bamboozled: "That ain't funny* RC: You… really DON'T have to pay attention to the things you say when you're famous, do you? And wait, is he talking to Paris Hilton here, who, body-wise, is the successor to Twiggy when it comes to looking like an 11 year old boy? "Butt what"? He should have said, "butt where"? But maybe he's not talking to Paris Hilton, maybe this is just how he talks to girls. So, just imagine this scenario for a second. I mean, if you thought, "call me Mr. Flintstone, I can make your bed rock" was a pathetic pick up line, imagine you're the girl in this scenario, and in comes Lil Wayne, possibly your favorite rapper as well the biggest rapper of the 21st century and he walks up to you and just looks at her butt while proudly proclaiming, "Butt what"?. And she, looking back at this grotesque display of masculinity, quickly realizes that when your favorite rapper reachers a certain caliber of fame and fortune and can have any girl he wants, everything that oozes out of this creature's mouth comes heedless of a woman's threshold for misogynistic bullshit, and she is now faced with a dilemma: maintain her dignity and abstain from his whims, foregoing all the luxuries that come with this meal ticket, or ignore the obvious signs of sociopathic behavior and humor the unedited sound vomit that spews from a man who has had no need to filter out to the astonishingly stupid behavior one develops when everyone around him has been pile driving their heads up his ass since his first album. But, I guess it could be worse. Her favorite rapper could have been Rick Ross. 2: "U.O.E.N.O." by Rocko feat. Future and Rick Ross :Rick: Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it :I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it RC: Well, I think we all know what the problem is here: "champagne", in NO way rhymes with the word "that". Psh! …Oh yeah, and the other thing… Okay, so this is obviously alluding to rape. My big problem is how Rick Ross treated it like it wasn't a big deal. I mean, yes, there are a lot of people that would argue that lots of rappers say terrible things, and that this lyric should be held in the same regard as all the other outlandish lyrics glorifying terrible topics, but the problem with this lyric is that the delivery treats it like it's unimportant. Like, he wasn't trying to be funny, he wasn't trying to be over-the top: it was just another lyric in the song. I mean, you can hate Eminem for his sexist, homophobic lyrics, please, go right ahead, he kinda deserves it, because there are a lot of lyrics that do go too far. However, more often than not, his stuff is MEANT to be over the top and if you get offended, it's what he wants you to do, because that's how his lyrics are meant to be portrayed. Even his friend Bizarre, whose lyrics are rarely ever funny, at least comes with the intention that he's not supposed to be taken seriously. This lyric simply wasn't trying to do that. To me, it just sounded like, "here's another standard brag-rap that happens to involve raping a woman". And that's what I think really got to people: how normal he seemed to be making it, like it was just another thing that happened in the club. What's worse, when asked to clarify about these lyrics, this was his response: (imitates Rick): "It was a misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation where the term rape wasn’t used. I would never use the term rape. So I wanted to reach out to all the queens, all the sexy ladies, the beautiful ladies that have been reaching out to me with the misunderstanding." (Back to normal): This is what let me know that he didn't care about what he said, because he just explained nothing. You just SAID that you don't condone rape. You say you were misinterpreted. What you didn't do was explain how the scenario you described WOULDN'T be considered rape. Yes, the term "rape" wasn't used, but if I said, I walked into your son's room with an axe and came out with blood on my clothes, yeah, no I didn't SAY the word "murder" there, but just because I didn't explicitly say "murder", that doesn't mean it wasn't implied. You said, "I put a drug in her champagne, had sex with her, and she didn't know that I had sex with her." How is that NOT rape?! They asked you to explain, in WHAT other context could those lyrics imply, and you had nothing to say to them. But see, I know he's not dumb, I know he knows what it means to imply something. I just hate how he's obviously acting ignorant in order to save face Of course a few days later he was forced to officially apologize for the lyric, but by that point it just seemed like it only happened because he was being dropped by his Reebok deal. Which is odd to me, because, alright, bragging about taking advantage of a drugged woman on a song is wrong, but… bragging for four albums straight about running illegal drug cartels and blowing people's brains out with automatic weapons, that didn't set off any red flags about this person's character? Alright, cool! It's good to know what Reebok is willing to support. 1: "Karate Chop (Remix)" by Future Ft. Lil Wayne :Lil Wayne: Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till :Yeah… RC: On the contrary, no. Look, I know you're trying to be all hyperbolic about your sexual prowess, but dude, there's a FUCKING limit. RC (VO): Yeah, nothing's sexier than comparing a vagina to the beaten, deformed, and bloodied face of a child whose death was so gruesome, it sparked the Civil Rights Movement! RC: And it's just made worse by that uncomfortable pause, like, "Oh yeah, I went there… solely for the purpose of describing rough sex at the expense of making light of a child's death, I went there!" For God's sakes, when even Insane Clown Posse wouldn't make a joke about an incident that was crucial to America's history, maybe you should cut the crap! And no, I didn't include this and that other lyric on my countdown because they were hot button issues of the year. I included them because I knew if no one had raised a stink about these lyrics, Wayne and Ross would have shown no remorse over them. I'm just so annoyed by how unaffected these guys are that it took them being dropped from their endorsement deals for someone in their camps to finally say, "wait, maybe that thing he said was stupid. Maybe we should just listen to our record one more time to make sure this is the stuff we want contributing to the zeitgeist". A lot of mainstream hiphop seems so divorced from humanity, and I hate seeing affluenza becoming accepted as a thing in Hip hop. I mean, yes, all of these artists do have the right to say whatever they want, but we should exercise the right to say that this is deplorable and it's crap, and that we want something better. Now, I'm not one of those guys who's calling for these songs to be banned, far from it. Again, these guys should have the right to say whatever they want, and you know what, that shock rap stuff has it's place in the world, it really does, but damn it, wouldn't it be awesome if we as an audience just happened to want more topics that were uplifting, or things that hit your soul and really gave you something to think about, something to feel good about, and something to really feel in your gut? That way, maybe my best of Lists could consist of more than a bunch of songs that you probably never heard because they never charted which always makes me feel like a backpacking hiphop nerd. But dude, it's not that I want to keep mainstream hipHop off of my "Best of" list, I just want mainstream hiphop to stop sucking so much. Is that too much too ask? I don't think it's too much to.. it's probably too much to ask. I mean, Macklemore and Kendrick Lamar are doing their thing, so we'll see. Alright, I'll catch y'all later. End credits Category:Content Category:Guides